Getting Lost Questions ???

google comes in very handy. when the address won't pull up on gps. or it looks funky.

the worst situation i ever got in. gps knew exactly where it was going. 10 miles up the tiny dirt road. on the mountain side. the customer was a house.
i drove up. got unloaded. and backed all the way down to the main road. lost the mud flaps but the delivery got handled.

 

This is great advice.

I look the route over on my GPS, it's easy to tell the major roads from the minor ones.... if I see roads that I know are going to be trouble.... I insert a waypoint.... the GPS then recalculates the route, incorporating the waypoint.... If all looks good, off I go.....

If I'm going someplace I know is going to be a challenge, I look at it on Google maps. You can figure out the truck route into anywhere with Google maps and a good GPS.

Set your parameters, check your route, enter additional waypoints if necessary, and look it over on Google maps if it's some tricky downtown delivery where the street address may not coincide with where the delivery is to be, (like the back of the building).

 

mmmmm.......sometimes GPS is off...... But I can usually tell when its not right on the money cause it'll give me an address that is close, but not exact, or multiple addresses. Sometimes its the info that's wrong, yes it really does matter if someone transposes a number, or forgets to add the N designation, as in N Main st.....these kinds of things can make for a really interesting day.

But being able to see the layout of all of the surrounding streets on your GPS when you're in a jam is invaluable.

I can't imagine not having one, wait, yes I can..... it was once like that, no GPS......YIKES!!

I like GPS so much I have 2 of them, (different models, one a regular GPS, the other a truck GPS), it's nice to compare the routes, I've found the truck one to be glitchy... like someone said earlier, it will route past, around, and back down to where the truck stop is. Weird.

 

Oh Lord not again. I backed up 3 miles because a secretary gave me directions. "Well I drive that way every day". GPS is a map, that's it. Not your Mommie, it's up to you to ask for real directions. Give details. My truck is 12' tall. Her Corvette fits under the bridge just fine. Female or male, I have a large truck. Not a mini van. How do I get to you. I have asked, come get me. Most will send someone. I can't live everywhere, help me out. Make them feel important, You have their paycheck on your trailer.

 

Check sat maps on your phone, check your gps against your atlas and company directions, and sometimes I'll use my garmin and my Qualcomm gps to come up with the best route for me, if all else fails call, I only rely on my gps as a last resort, if I get lost and don't have any place to safely pull over, also know your route before you go, technology fails, gps dosent always work in the tunnels under boston, and can be inaccurate in certain weather, so you need to know your exits and your turns

 

We use Google Maps to figure out the local directions. Use the Satellite function on it ALWAYS. Sometimes on Google Maps it will show you a road then when you use the Satellite function.....that road turns out to be an alley.

A month ago in Kent, WA, GPS wanted us to turn on a street that didn't exist.

If you do make a mistake....don't panic like that USA Truck driver. Get out of the truck & find the right solution. Ask someone in a car to help you as you back out if you have to. Call the police. Don't panic. There always is a solution.

We've all been there

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ8WKscGo8I&feature=youtube_gdata_player


This is what happens when you panic

 

^^ He was a rookie. He's experienced now.

 

Thanks! I'd forgotten about that feature of Google Maps and it saved my bacon twice today and I'm sure it will save it again for tomorrow morning's pick up. The feature I use is Street View. When you enter SV and move the cursor on the picture a pop up appears with the street address. Many's the time I'm given an address for pick up that trucks can't enter and once you figure that out then you are often in for some "fun times" trying to turn around and figure out where the trucks can enter. By getting down into street view I can read the signs.... "NO Trucks!" ... or ... "Truck Entry is on Harbor Avenue". Eventually I'll zoom right into the entry itself and hover the cursor to see the address right at the entry. THAT's the address I put into the nav system today, and it worked perfectly both times.

Tomorrow's pick up in the wee hours was at an address that requires a U-turn on a city street to get around a barrier in the middle of the street... but then you end up at the employee's entry and a "NO TRUCKS!" sign. By traveling around the block in Street View I realize the truck entry is shared by several companies and that entry is half a mile away with an easy left turn at a signal.

Hover that cursor in SV at the exact entry you want, and that should be the address to put into the nav system.